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Customer Review
- Reviewed in Canada on June 10, 2016This is great SF. The ideas are not original but are told in a very original way. Darrow, the protagonist, is born, marries and lives the life of a young miner in the deep tunnels of Mars, believing, as do all his co-habitants, that the surface of Mars is uninhabitable. But this is a lie, cruelly foisted on the exploited miners for the purposes of the ultimate ruling class of the solar system, the Golds. Darrow and his people are lowColor Reds. There are numerous other colors in this highly rigid society most of whom are equally exploited. The Golds believe they rule by divine right as they are eugenically superior in intelligence, strength, education, and training. The back story to this development is given in depth and with brilliant clarity. , Through character and bitter circumstance, Darrow comes to join the shadowy resistance, the Sons of Ares, who transform him into a Gold to subvert the ruling order. Like the Manchurian Candidate but heroic rather than villianous, Darrow is charged with infiltrating the most elite of Gold society in order to bring it down. But in his journey his intense interaction with other Golds force him to accept them as human beings and to grow in his own understanding of what kind of society should come after, if he should be able to overthrow it, a dubious proposition. The major relationships he forms around him include many close male friends and also the beautiful and very intelligent Virginia au Augustus (Mustang) with whom he falls in love but must continually hold back his feelings because of the enormous secret he hides. This is a trilogy of three quite long books that are really one long novel. The characters, the relationships, and the ingeniously strategic battles fought every step of the way are quite extraordinary and written with such energy and tension that I was propelled to read the entire trilogy before I even had time to reflect. In summary,I found Book 1 the most intense and satisfying followed closely by book 2 and a little further behind, book 3 where Darrow’s character loses some of its mystique and dynamism. It could also be viewed as arcing towards a wiser but less confident character. However, the writing remains amazingly vivid, and the plot twists intensify. I really have only one criticism of Book 3 but I don't think it's just a quibble.I found that the love affair between Darrow and Mustang, always somewhat coy verging on prudish and explained by Darrow's painful memories and his need to keep his distance, lacked sexual chemistry after these obstacles are resolved and did not achieve a convincing resolution after all the unresolved tension built up over the relationship in the first two books. That said, a trilogy this good can cover up a multitude of sins. I rated the first two books as solid 5s and I give the third a 4.
